Biz Quirk #3- The Call Back

One of the strangest quirks of doing business here is the "call back." The "call back" is defined as anyone or any company who promises to phone you back and then never actually does or intended to do so. It happens daily and can pose a certain hurdle to getting things done. What makes this even more quirky is the fact that 90% of the time a "call back" is promised but not delivered even when an agreement of purchase has already been agreed upon. Sometimes it seems that the company is in fact going out of their way to not make a sale rather than simply accepting the money and delivering said product/service. The icing on this not-so-tasty cake is that it is just as common among big foreign companies that have branches within China as it is with local companies.

I have also included a translation guide for commonly used phrases or answers:

不可能 (lit. impossible)
true meaning- its possible but I have no interest in really trying

马上 (lit. immediately)
true meaning- could be a few hours, maybe today, and possibly tomorrow

今天 (lit. today)
true meaning- i have high aspirations for getting this done but I might be busy today so probably early tomorrow morning

明天 (lit. tomorrow)
true meaning- actual time is unknown but I am not doing it today and don't plan to remember it if you ask tomorrow

后天 (lit. day after tomorrow)
true meaning- it's never going to happen and don't bother calling me about it

Biz Quirk #2- My idea, Your Idea

I try out new ideas all the time. A good amount of these don't pan out, but some of them end up sticking. Being stagnant in a business can be detrimental. New ideas keep a business relevant or organic. Organic businesses succeed.

In light of this, we often propose ideas or opportunities to near-by businesses and 11 times out of 10 we get turned down. Its never because the idea doesn't benefit that said business or make sense for them to try it. They turn it down not because of its merit but always because they have never tried anything like it before or never heard of such an idea. We often propose win-win proposals for them and give up a lot just to give the idea a try but to no avail.

Recently, a new trend has started. We will go through the hoops of proposing a new idea and it will of course be rejected, but now that business will comes back with my idea only now they call it their idea and they are gun ho to make it work. They explain the opportunity like its never been heard of before only its sounds vaguely familiar. They stress the same points and benefits that we begged them to consider. We of course are still interested in the idea and do want to give it a try. But we of course try to renegotiate some terms in our favor since its now them proposing our idea to us.

Biz Quirk #1- Customer Disservice

Now for a running blog segment entitled Biz Quirks. Quirks are commonplace when doing business anywhere but some seem more prevalent here. In fact when it comes to Customer Disservice, defined as the practice of not only failing to give good respectable service to your customers but going the extra mile to ensure that they have a bitter taste in their mouth, I don't know who is to blame when its a foreign company providing it so diligently. Its quite odd because the company has made a name for itself by providing high quality products and services but then its all lost when they turn it over to their companie's China division or pass their product on to another 3rd party. One particular bitter example was our recent dealings with a division of the Anchor company. Anchor makes great butter and cheese but also excels in their level of customer disservice. We recently made an order for unsalted butter and cheddar cheese blocks. We chose to order in bulk to cut costs. When our order arrived there were a few things wrong. 1) The butter was salted instead of unsalted. 2) the butter was melted because the wrong shipping company was chosen 3) the cheese was processed slices and not real cheddar cheese blocks and 4) no invoice was provided although specifically requested. All in all not the end of the world but needless to say none of it was usable for what we needed it for. When we contacted the company they admitted their mistakes but informed us we could only choose one of their mistakes to have rectified. We took our beef to upper-management and they were embarrassed at what happened and promised to have it fixed immediately. Unfortunately, they flipped flopped the next day when they told us all butter has salt in it so it doesn't matter which kind we ordered and paid for and that we should use the processed cheese slices to make sandwiches. Of course if I had wanted to do either of those things then I would have made my order to reflect those desires, but we don't make sandwiches and don't see our use of processed cheese slices in the near or distant future to make soup and pizzas. We are still waiting for a resolution but it baffles me that a company would go the extra mile and pull out all the stops to push us to the verge of never using their products again instead of taking the easier path of righting their wrongs.

I have seen some companies go the opposite way with their service and it wows me all the more. Our coffee bean supplier routinely sends us free samples of beans to sample, knowing that if they show us some love we are more likely to pass the love back.